Stocks to watch: RIL, Axis Bank, Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Finance, Lauras Labs

Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange traded 45 points higher at 14,689, around 8.30 am, indicating a firm start for the domestic benchmark indices in Thursday's session.

Here are the top stocks to watch out for today:

Reliance Industries, Future Retail: Sebi gave a go-ahead to Future Group's scheme of arrangement and sale of assets to Reliance Industries, based on which the BSE also granted its "no adverse observation" report to the Rs 24,713-crore deal.

Aditya Birla Fashion: Competition Commission of India approved the acquisition of 7.8 per cent minority stake in Aditya Birla Fashion by Flipkart Investments. With this infusion, Flipkart Group will own a 7.8 per cent equity stake in ABFRL on a fully diluted basis.

Axis Bank: Competition Commission of India approved the acquisition of stake in Max Life Insurance by Axis Bank, Axis Capital and Axis Securities.

Q3 earnings: Asian Paints, Bajaj Auto, MCX India, SBI Cards and Payment Services, Bandhan Bank and Biocon are among 57 firms set to post their December quarter numbers today.

Analysts expect Bajaj Auto to announce a decent set of numbers with net profit expected to grow around 10 per cent year-on-year (YoY), on the back of volume uptick. READ MORE

Bajaj Finance: The company's net profit fell 30 per cent to Rs 1,049 crore in the December quarter compared to Rs 1,488 crore posted in the same period last year. The lender also said that it will foray into the payments space in the ongoing quarter.

Bajaj Finserv: Bajaj Finserv, on Wednesday, reported a 15 per cent YoY rise in its consolidated profit at Rs 1,290 crore for the third quarter ended December. Total income rose to Rs 15,960.72 crore as against Rs 14,561 crore in the year-ago period.

L&T Technology Services: The company posted an 8.8 per cent decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 186.1 crore for the December 2020 quarter as against Rs 204.1 crore in the year-ago period.

Newgen Software Technologies: It clocked 47.8 per cent YoY rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 35.4 crore for the December 2020 quarter, driven by cost rationalisations.

HDFC AMC: HDFC Asset Management Company (AMC) posted a 5 per cent YoY increase in profit after tax at Rs 369.26 crore for Q3. Total income grew to Rs 594.91 crore in the quarter under review from Rs 591.99 crore in the three months ended December 31, 2019.

Havells: Consumer electrical goods maker Havells India reported a 74.52 per cent YoY jump in its consolidated net profit to Rs 350.14 crore for the third quarter ended on December 2020. Its revenue was up 39.67 per cent YoY to Rs 3,175.20 crore.

GMM Pfaudler: The company reported a consolidated profit of Rs 23.2 crore in Q3 FY21 against Rs 21 crore in Q3 FY20; revenue increased to Rs 201.8 crore from Rs 156 crore YoY.

Zee Entertainment: ZEEL has appointed Ashok Namboodiri as its chief business officer for the international business. With this appointment, Zee intends to further strengthen its presence in the international markets.

8KMiles: The company, which will be rechristening as Securekloud Technologies from Thursday, expects to close the pandemic-ravaged 2020-21 flat, but sees better days ahead with revenue clipping at around 30 per cent in 2021-22.

Laurus Labs: The drug firm has acquired majority stake in Bengaluru-based biotech company Richcore Lifesciences marking its entry into the biotechnology segment.

Sagar Cement: The firm has declared a second interim dividend of Rs 2 per share for the financial year 2020-21 and has fixed February 3, 2021, as the record date for the purpose. 

UltraTech Cement: The firm would consider and evaluate a proposal for raising of funds in one or more tranches through methods or combinations as decided by the board on January 23.